---
title: "Streaming Bandwidth & CDN Cost Calculator | RentAnOTT"
description: "Estimate monthly streaming bandwidth, CDN delivery cost, storage and live peak egress from your viewers, watch time and quality mix."
url: "https://www.rentanott.com/tools/streaming-bandwidth-cost-calculator"
markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/tools/streaming-bandwidth-cost-calculator.md"
category: "Infrastructure"
price: "Free, no sign-up"
---

# Streaming bandwidth and CDN cost calculator

Estimate how much data your streaming service will deliver each month, what it costs on your CDN, how much storage your catalog needs and the peak bandwidth your live events require.

This is a free interactive calculator by RentAnOTT at https://www.rentanott.com/tools/streaming-bandwidth-cost-calculator. This Markdown version lists its inputs and default values, the exact formulas it uses, its reference data, and a worked example computed with the defaults.

## Inputs and default values

| Group | Input | Default | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Audience | Monthly active viewers | 20,000 |  |
| Audience | Watch hours per viewer | 10 h/mo | Streaming apps commonly see 5–20 hours per active viewer |
| Quality mix | Codec | H.264 | H.264, HEVC or AV1 |
| Quality mix | SD 480p | 15% | Share of viewing hours; normalized to 100% |
| Quality mix | HD 720p | 35% | Share of viewing hours; normalized to 100% |
| Quality mix | Full HD 1080p | 40% | Share of viewing hours; normalized to 100% |
| Quality mix | 4K 2160p | 10% | Share of viewing hours; normalized to 100% |
| Pricing | CDN price per GB | $0.03 | Presets below |
| Pricing | Catalog size | 500 hours |  |
| Pricing | Storage per GB-month | $0.023 |  |
| Live (optional) | Live hours per month | 0 | 0 = on-demand only |
| Live (optional) | Avg. concurrent viewers | 1,000 |  |
| Live (optional) | Peak concurrent viewers | 3,000 |  |

## Reference data

### H.264 delivery bitrate per quality tier

| Tier | H.264 bitrate | HEVC | AV1 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SD 480p | 1.5 Mbps | 0.9 Mbps | 0.75 Mbps |
| HD 720p | 3 Mbps | 1.8 Mbps | 1.5 Mbps |
| Full HD 1080p | 5.5 Mbps | 3.3 Mbps | 2.75 Mbps |
| 4K 2160p | 15 Mbps | 9 Mbps | 7.5 Mbps |

### Codec bitrate factors (relative to H.264)

| Codec | Factor |
| --- | --- |
| H.264 | 1 |
| HEVC | 0.6 |
| AV1 | 0.5 |

### CDN price presets (per GB)

| Preset | Price per GB |
| --- | --- |
| Flat-rate | $0.0049 |
| Budget | $0.01 |
| Mid-market | $0.03 |
| List price | $0.085 |

Flat-rate example: ZeroBuffer (https://zerobuffer.io) lists $0.0049/GB in every region (checked October 2026). Most CDNs charge more outside North America and Europe.

## Formulas

- Data per viewing hour: `bitrate (Mbps) × 0.45` GB (3,600 s ÷ 8 bits per byte ÷ 1,000 MB per GB)
- Average bitrate: quality-mix-weighted average of the tier bitrates × codec factor
- VOD data: `viewers × watch hours × average bitrate × 0.45` GB per month
- Live data: `average concurrent viewers × live hours × average bitrate × 0.45` GB per month
- Storage: `catalog hours × (sum of bitrates of every tier in use × codec factor) × 0.45` GB
- Monthly cost: `(VOD data + live data) × CDN price + storage × storage price`
- Live peak egress: `peak concurrent viewers × average bitrate ÷ 1,000` Gbps
- Codec savings: delivery cost × (1 − next codec factor ÷ current codec factor), for H.264 → HEVC or HEVC → AV1

## Worked example with the default inputs

| Result | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Monthly delivery & storage | $13.6K ($162.7K per year) |
| Data delivered per month (VOD + live) | 447.75 TB |
| VOD delivery cost | $13.4K |
| Live delivery cost | $0 |
| Storage cost | $129.38 |
| Stored renditions | 5.63 TB |
| Average bitrate (H.264) | 5 Mbps |
| Cost per viewer | $0.678 ($0.0678 per viewing hour) |
| Live peak egress | 14.9 Gbps at 3,000 concurrent viewers |
| Switching to HEVC saves | $5,373/mo |

### Same audience by codec

| Codec | Average bitrate | Data per month | Monthly cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| H.264 | 5 Mbps | 447.75 TB | $13.6K |
| HEVC | 3 Mbps | 268.65 TB | $8,137.13 |
| AV1 | 2.5 Mbps | 223.87 TB | $6,780.94 |

> Note: Estimates only. CDN pricing varies by region, volume tier and contract. Excludes encoding, DRM licensing, origin egress and player overhead.

## The formula behind the numbers

Streaming cost is driven by data delivered. One viewing hour at 1 Mbps transfers 0.45 GB (3,600 seconds ÷ 8 bits per byte ÷ 1,000). So the monthly total is:

`viewers × watch hours × average bitrate × 0.45 = GB per month`

Multiply by your CDN price per GB for delivery cost. Storage is smaller: each hour of catalog is stored once for every rendition in your adaptive bitrate ladder.

## What moves your bill

- **Quality mix.** A 4K hour costs about 10× an SD hour. Defaulting mobile users to 720p can cut costs sharply with little visible loss.
- **Codec.** HEVC and AV1 deliver similar quality at lower bitrates. See the [video bitrate calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/video-bitrate-calculator) for recommended ladders.
- **Region and volume.** CDN prices differ by continent and drop with committed volume.
- **Live peaks.** Live events add data and also need capacity for the peak moment, not just the average.

## Put delivery cost in context

Delivery is usually a small share of revenue once you price correctly. Compare your cost per viewer with revenue per user in the [OTT revenue calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-revenue-calculator), and read our [live streaming player guide](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/live-streaming-player) for how players and formats affect delivery.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much bandwidth does one hour of streaming use?

Data per hour equals bitrate × 0.45. At 3 Mbps (720p H.264) one viewing hour uses about 1.35 GB; at 5.5 Mbps (1080p) about 2.5 GB; at 15 Mbps (4K) about 6.75 GB. HEVC and AV1 cut those numbers by roughly 40–50%.

### How do I estimate CDN cost for a streaming service?

Multiply monthly viewers by watch hours and average bitrate to get data delivered, convert it to GB, then multiply by your CDN price per GB. Add storage for every rendition in your catalog. The calculator does all of this and splits VOD from live.

### How much does a CDN charge per GB?

Prices range widely: some flat-rate CDNs list under $0.005 per GB in every region, low-cost CDNs often charge around $0.01 per GB in North America and Europe, while hyperscaler list prices are closer to $0.08–0.09 per GB for the first tiers. Asia, Latin America and Africa usually cost more, and committed volume brings prices down.

### What is peak egress and why does it matter for live streaming?

Peak egress is the bandwidth needed at the busiest moment of a live event: concurrent viewers × bitrate. 10,000 viewers at 5 Mbps need 50 Gbps. Your CDN and origin must handle that peak, not just the monthly total.

### Does switching codecs really reduce streaming costs?

Yes. HEVC typically needs about 40% less bitrate than H.264 for similar quality, and AV1 about 50% less. Delivery cost scales with bitrate, but you need devices that can decode the newer codec, so most services keep an H.264 fallback.

## Related reading

- [Live Streaming Player: Features, Formats, and Costs](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/live-streaming-player) ([Markdown](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/live-streaming-player.md))
- [How to Start a Streaming Service: A 10-Step Launch Playbook](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/how-to-start-a-streaming-service) ([Markdown](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/how-to-start-a-streaming-service.md))
- [White Label Streaming Platform: A Buyer’s Guide](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/white-label-streaming-platform) ([Markdown](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/white-label-streaming-platform.md))

## More free tools

- [OTT App Builder](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-app-builder) ([Markdown](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-app-builder.md)) — Free OTT app builder. Design a branded streaming app in your browser: logo, colors, menu and home rows, previewed live on TV, web, tablet and mobile.
- [OTT Revenue Calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-revenue-calculator) ([Markdown](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-revenue-calculator.md)) — Free OTT revenue calculator. Model subscribers, churn, ad and rental revenue, compare SVOD, AVOD, TVOD and hybrid, and find your break-even month.
- [Video Bitrate Calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/video-bitrate-calculator) ([Markdown](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/video-bitrate-calculator.md)) — Free video bitrate calculator for streaming. Get recommended bitrates for 720p, 1080p, 2K and 4K in H.264, HEVC or AV1, file sizes and a full ABR ladder.
- [Localized Pricing Calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/localized-pricing-calculator) ([Markdown](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/localized-pricing-calculator.md)) — Turn one USD subscription price into purchasing-power-adjusted local prices with clean price points like ₹149 or R$19.90, for 25+ markets.

## Want these numbers running in production?

RentAnOTT ships with adaptive encoding up to 4K, CDN delivery and auto-scaling AWS infrastructure for VOD and live, sized to your audience from day one. RentAnOTT launches branded OTT apps, web and CMS with monetization, multi-DRM and auto-scaling delivery built in. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact

## More from RentAnOTT

- [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works
- [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on
- [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD
- [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing
- [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles
- [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms
- [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch

Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt